Will Shakespeare and the Ships of Solomon

In 1947 a clandestine meeting in a Montreal church erupts into gunfire. The only survivors are Dorothy Wilkinson and Will Shakespeare. No, not that Will Shakespeare – this man, whose birth name was abandoned long ago, is now the sole remnant of the ancient Knights Templar. His commander’s dying instructions are to ensure that Dorothy survives the attack committed by an equally ancient and secret Catholic army.

As it transpires, the Catholic army has only begun to pursue the couple as Will Shakespeare and the Ships of Solomon takes its readers to the fabled Money Pit of Oak Island, and then to ancient caverns in Bermuda. This fast-paced thriller has plenty of action and interesting puzzles, and its hard-bitten prose should please lovers of the genre, but it slid into cliché too often for me. I would have liked to learn more about the Knights Templar and why the secret Catholic army was out to exterminate them, but the history of these organizations was mostly presented as brief commentary between chase scenes. We learn little about what Shakespeare thinks of his role in this historic struggle, and Dorothy is a cipher. However, readers who enjoy historical suspense might give Will Shakespeare a try.

Review

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